that would mean temporarily laying off thousands of pentagon staffers. air traffic controllers, border guards and federal agents. carl cameron is in d.c. carl? >> thanks, shep. senate democrats today actually proposed their alternative to all these across the board cuts. they come up at the end of the month. it's $55 billion in spending cuts. and $55 billion in tax increases. but taxes actually went up $650 billion already this year. so when republicans heard that they i. the democrats were talking about more, the g.o.p. said no way. not a solution. even they know it can'tt they he offered no solutions. >> congressional budget office estimates the cuts would trim 8% off the department of defense and about 5% to 6% off othe rest of the agencies. democrats insist that any solution to decades of deficit spending has to include tax hikes on the rich. is is it a spending problem? no. it's because we have a misallocation of capital. a misallocation of wealth. we have a tax code that is skewed for the wealthy. >> so republicans have offered alternatives to the